I am back in Portugal and really happy to present my most recent project, Intimate Strangers, in Lisbon (my hometown!) and Porto. Intimate Strangers was created in collaboration with the Nigerian writer Emmanuel Iduma, drawing inspiration from Iduma’s book A Stranger’s Pose, a unique blend of travelogue, musings and poetry, with a foreword by Teju Cole.

Combining music, text, image and field recordings collected by Iduma during his travels, Intimate Strangers explores such themes as of movement, home, grief, absence and desire in what Iduma calls “an atlas of a borderless world”. Like echoes from a distant reality, Intimate Strangers aims to reflect on how we see the other and how we describe hospitality and humanity for future generations.

Dia 16 de Julho, 16h
Festival Jazz no Parque, Fundação Serralves (Porto)

Bilhetes/ Tickets: Jazz no Parque – Fundação Serralves (Porto)

Dia 18 de Julho, 18h
Festival Robalo- Antena 2, Auditório do Liceu Camões (Lisboa)

Entrada gratuita/ Free entrance Sara Serpa, Sofía Rei, Aubrey Johnson
voice
Erin Pettigrew
spoken word
Qasim Naqvi
modular synth
Fabian Almazan
piano
Marta Viana
luz


This engagement is supported in part by Mid Atlantic Arts through USArtists International, a program in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and Arte Institute.

will stage 19 live performances and six brand new duo commissions at their inaugural in-person festival, co-presented with NYC Winter Jazzfest. The concerts will feature musicians including Fay Victor, Val-Inc aka Val Jeanty SoundChemist, Shanta NurullahMichele Rosewoman, Monnette Sudler, Malika Zarra, Sumi Tonooka, Erica Lindsay, Caroline DavisJen Shyu & Sara Serpa and many more.

As venues and festivals re-open, many clubs, performing arts centers and festivals are still programming mostly male, established musicians, who have always dominated programming. The Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³) Festival, co-presented with NYC Winter Jazzfest, proposes a drastic reversal of this imbalance by presenting 19 women and non-binary bandleaders. The festival spans five days as performers, M³’s commissioned composers and workshop leaders provide powerful examples of women and non-binary perspectives to music lovers, students, families, children, other musicians and music industry professionals.

Portuguese vocalist-composer Sara Serpa presents her new work Encounters and Collisions at City of Asylum’s Jazz and Poetry Month Festival, in Pittsburgh. A commission by Chamber Music America, drawing inspiration from Somali-Italian writer Igiaba Scego’s book My Home is Where I Am, Encounters & Collisions combines music and text to reflect on ideas of identity and migration influenced by Scego’s writings on the post-colonial relationships between African and Europe.

Featured MusiciansSara Serpa (voice, composition); Ingrid Laubrock (saxophone); Angelica Sanchez (piano); and Chris Tordini (bass).

Tickets here (online and in-person)

Sara Serpa will have her first residency at The Stone (at The New School) next week. Bring a friend! See program below. Reservations highly recommended HERE.

2/23 Wednesday, 8:30 pm
55 West 13th street
Sara Serpa (voice) Caroline Davis (sax) Chris Tordini (bass) Lesley Mok (drums)

2/24 Thursday, 8:30 pm
55 West 13th street
Sara Serpa & André Matos
Sara Serpa (voice) André Matos (guitar) Dov Manski (piano) Jeong Lim Yang (bass) Kendrick Scott (drums)

2/25 Friday, 8:30 pm
55 West 13th street
Intimate Strangers
Sara Serpa (voice) Sofia Rei (voice) Aubrey Johnson (voice) Qasim Naqvi (modular synth) Matt Mitchell (piano) Nehassaiu deGannes (spoken word)

2/26 Saturday, 8:30 pm
55 West 13th street
World Premiere of CMA Jazz Works ‘Encounters and Collisions’ 
based on Igiaba Scego’s book ‘Home is Where I Am’

Sara Serpa (voice) Ingrid Laubrock (saxophones) Angelica Sanchez (piano) Erik Friedlander (cello)

_________________________________________

THE STONE AT THE NEW SCHOOL COVID PROTOCOL
1. everyone must have proof of vaccine and photo ID
2. everyone must wear a mask
3. maximum of 35 audience members

Those who do not have proof of vaccine and photo ID will not be allowed into The Stone at The New School.

FOR RESERVATIONS CLICK HERE

 Tuesday, December 14th, 7pm at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem – reservations are highly recommended here. 

Vocalist/composer Sara Serpa presents her collaboration with Nigerian author Emmanuel Iduma on the show of December 14th to feature music from her stunning new album Intimate Strangers.  The album is offering musical insight into the journeys and experiences of migrants, refugees, and displaced people.

Intimate Strangers is due out December 3, 2021 via Biophilia Records and features vocalists Serpa, Aubrey Johnson and Sofia Rei with pianist Matt Mitchell and synth player Qasim Naqvi creating vivid soundscapes for stories from Iduma’s book A Stranger’s Pose.

Sara Serpa, Sofía Rei, Aubrey Johnson- voice

Erin Pettigrew- narrator

Qasim Naqvi – modular synth

Matt Mitchell- piano

Tickets are $10 and proof of vaccination and ID will be required at the door.  Masks are required for all visitors.

Premiered as a London Jazz News exclusive on 11/25/2021.

With music from the new album Intimate Strangers, this video was filmed at the heart of Luanda’s Island forest, directed by Fradique, one of the most exciting and talented voices of Angolan Cinema and produced by Geração 80. I feel incredibly honored for having his vision complement the music I created together with Sofía ReiAubrey JohnsonMatt Mitchell and Qasim Naqvi, with words by Emmanuel Iduma.

Here is what Fradique says:
“It was an absolute pleasure to do this videoThe pace of the song and the lyrics are truly inspiring for me as a filmmaker. As if a tree is slowly bursting out of the earth, the song carries a peculiar floating weight that defies gravity. Visually I wanted to bring the setting of an old forest fable into the video and combine that with an everyday working-class tale – the carwashers. It was shot in the old forest of Luanda’s Island, a space abandoned by the city, where people still come looking for answers among carwashers, religious cults and the old trees.” 

The single “For You I Must Become a Tree” is out today Friday November 26th, on all platforms.

PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

From the album: Intimate Strangers
Music by Sara Serpa
Words by Emmanuel Iduma

Vocalist-composer Sara Serpa collaborates with Nigerian author Emmanuel Iduma on a stunning new album offering musical insight into the journeys and experiences of migrants, refugees, and displaced people.

Intimate Strangers, due out December 3, 2021 via Biophilia Records, features vocalists Serpa, Aubrey Johnson and Sofía Rei with pianist Matt Mitchell and synth player Qasim Naqvi, creating vivid soundscapes for stories from Iduma’s book A Stranger’s Pose.

A fresh and riveting presence on the vocal-jazz landscape.” – Nate Chinen, JazzTimes

Serpa possesses a preternatural cool, injecting weightless sophistication and melodic grace into everything she touches.” – Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader

Album release concert Tuesday, December 14 at National Jazz Museum, Harlem

There’s no better way to connect with the humanity of a stranger than to hear their stories and to share our own. On their poignant and striking new collaboration, Intimate Strangers, the extraordinary vocalist-composer Sara Serpa and the Nigerian writer Emmanuel Iduma traverse the African continent, sharing the author’s personal journey and collecting the tales of fellow travelers and migrants he meets along the way. Through Iduma’s insightful text and Serpa’s transcendent music, the lens widens to explore the struggles and emotions experienced by anyone who’s left their roots behind to seek the uncertain promise of a distant horizon.

“There were a lot of stories in Emmanuel’s book that really resonated with me,” Serpa explains. “While Recognition dealt with my country’s past relationships with Africa, I felt like his book presents a much-needed perspective of what borders actually mean. Through his travels and encounters with so many people just trying to cross into Europe, Emmanuel raises all these questions about traveling, migrating and leaving your home behind.”

www.saraserpa.com
www.biophiliarecords.com

Concert open to the MIT community on covid pass and open to the public with Tim Tickets

Portugal-born vocalist-composer Sara Serpa and MIT Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Music Evan Ziporyn join an array of MIT musicians (MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, MIT Wind Ensemble, and MIT Vocal Jazz Ensemble) to present a unique program of Brazilian music.

Music from Amazônia and works by Antônio Carlos Jobim, Hermeto Pascoal, Egberto Gismonti, and Chiquinha Gonzaga, arranged by Guillermo Klein and Evan Ziporyn, will be featured. 

The concert will include talks by Talia Khan, MIT SB ’20 and future MS/PhD Candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, on her research in Brazil, and Maritta R. von Bieberstein Koch-Weser, who leads the “Amazonia em Transformação: História e Perspectivas” program at the Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Created and led by MIT Sounding Co-Director Frederick Harris Jr., Hearing Amazônia–The Responsibility of Existence is inspired by Brazilian music influenced by the natural world and by 2020 MIT graduate Talia Khan’s research on natural botanical resins and traditional carimbó music in Santarém, Pará, Brazil. Kahn’s research is made possible by a MIT-Brazil/MISTI Sun internship grant.

Building upon experiences with 2020-21 CAST Virtual Visiting Artists Luciana Souza and Anat Cohen, this multi-year project launches with a special concert drawing attention to the urgency of the climate crisis. Portugal-born vocalist-composer Sara Serpa and MIT Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Music Evan Ziporyn join an array of MIT musicians (MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, MIT Wind Ensemble, and MIT Vocal Jazz Ensemble) to present a unique program of Brazilian music.

Music from Amazônia and works by Antônio Carlos Jobim, Hermeto Pascoal, Egberto Gismonti, and Chiquinha Gonzaga, arranged by Guillermo Klein and Evan Ziporyn, will be featured. 

The concert will include talks by Talia Khan, MIT SB ’20 and future MS/PhD Candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, on her research in Brazil, and Maritta R. von Bieberstein Koch-Weser, who leads the “Amazonia em Transformação: História e Perspectivas” program at the Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of São Paulo, Brazil. In this context she spearheads work on the establishment of the world’s first Rainforest Business School. 

Regarding her talk, Maritta Koch-Weser offers the following introduction:

“Biodiversity is the greatest treasure of Amazonian people and all Brazilians. A new path is possible (and most urgent) with ambitious science-based development of a standing-forest bioeconomy. The people living in this region look for sustainable social and economic progress. Renewed respect for Brazil’s environmental and indigenous protection legislation and building back nature on vast deforested lands could make a huge and positive difference. The reset has started.”

Hearing Amazônia–The Responsibility of Existence is presented by MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology and MIT Music and Theater Arts and includes research conducted with support from a MIT-Brazil/MISTI Suninternship grant.

Livestream https://mta.mit.edu/multimedia/view 

After a year of not performing live, I am presenting my latest project, Recognition, for the first time in Portugal, in a few days. 

Joining me will be Mark Turner (tenor sax) and David Virelles (piano). For those who attend our performance in Lisboa, you will have the chance to hear the amazing Angolan singer Aline Frazão in person narrating Amílcar Cabral texts.

All performances follow covid safety rules.
Make your reservation today by clicking on the links:

3 de Julho, 21.15h
 gnration, Braga
 Reservas

(This concert is supported by Mid Atlantic Arts through USArtists International in partnership with National Endowment for the Arts, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Howard Gilman Foundation)

4 de Julho, 19h
Porta-Jazz, Porto,
Reservas

6 de Julho, 19h30
Casa do Capitão/ Fábrica do Pão, Lisboa
Rua do Grilo, 119
 Reservas 

Porto and Lisboa concerts are made possible thanks to the generous support of Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, Arte Institute, and Robalo Music.